SS Rex

Type

Ocean Liner

Period

20th Century

Nation

Italy

Overview: SS Rex was a large Italian ocean liner built for the Italia Flotte Riunite (Italian Line), notable as one of the two flagship superliners of interwar Italy alongside her rival/sister-in-service Conte di Savoia. She is best remembered for capturing the westbound Blue Riband in 1933, the only Italian ship ever to hold that record, and for a widely publicized 1938 encounter with U.S. Army Air Corps B-17 bombers demonstrating long-range interception capability. Specifications: Rex measured 880 ft (268.2 m) overall with a beam of 96 ft 9 in (29.5 m) and a draught of 33 ft, displacing roughly 45,800 tons with a gross tonnage of 51,062 GRT. She was powered by four sets of geared steam turbines driving quadruple propellers, giving a design speed of 27 knots and a demonstrated maximum over 28 knots, and could carry over 2,000 passengers across four classes. Rex sported a long hull with a moderately raked bow and two working funnels with the colours of the Italian flag (red, white and green stripes), but still featured the old-type overhanging counter stern (also known as a fantail) found on such liners as Olympic and Aquitania. Service History: Originally laid down as SS Guglielmo Marconi for Navigazione Generale Italiana, a state-ordered merger saw her completed for the newly formed Italian Line, and she entered transatlantic service between Genoa and New York in 1932. Following the outbreak of war, both Rex and Conte di Savoia continued regular Mediterranean cruises as if totally unaffected by events to the north, but their voyages ceased in the spring of 1940 and they were returned to Italian ports for safekeeping. On 6 September 1944, Rex was spotted under tow south of Trieste by a Royal Air Force pilot, and on 8 September 1944 she was attacked in the Bay of Koper by twelve Bristol Beaufighter aircraft of 272 Squadron RAF, escorted by nine P-51 Mustang aircraft of the 52nd Fighter Group, USAAF, after which she caught fire, capsized, and sank in shallow water; she was partially broken up in situ in 1950. Notable Facts: In August 1933, Rex fulfilled the promises of her designers and captured the Blue Riband on its westbound crossing from the Bremen with a time of four days and thirteen hours, with an average speed of 28.92 knots, a record that would last until 1935 when it was captured by the French Line's Normandie. The remains of Rex - about one-third of the ship, including double bottom, boilers, and engines - are located off the Slovenian coast in the Gulf of Koper, while since 1954, after the formal annexation of Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste to Yugoslavia, an anchor claimed to be from Rex has been on display in Congress Square of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana to symbolize the defeat of fascist expansionism, though the anchor's style is inconsistent with Rex's actual fittings. The ship was featured in the 1973 film Amarcord, representing the "greatest thing the Italian regime ever built."